Ireland

The Kingston Coffeehouse: Katie Cruel

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Originally broadcast September 9, 2025, on WRIU 90.3 FM.


By Michael Stevenson, host The Kingston Coffeehouse

PLAYLIST
“Katie Cruel” (traditional) – Karen Dalton
“Bashed Out” (K. Stables) – This Is the Kit , 2015 Bashed Out
“God Loves a Drunk” (R Thompson) – Norma Waterson, 1996 

“I’m Waiting For You to Smile” – Katell Keineg, 1994 O Seasons O Castles 
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Ian Curtis) June Tabor & Oysterband, 2011 Ragged Kingdom
“People’s Faces” – Kae Tempest, 2019 The Book of Traps and Lessons
“Train Song” – Vashti Bunyan, r. 1966, Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind
“Anachie Gordon” (traditional) The Unthanks, 2010 Here’s the Tender Coming
“Henry Lee” (traditional) Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, 2011 Murder Ballads
“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Ewan MacColl) – Offa Rex, 2017 The Queen of Hearts
“She Moved through the Fair” (traditional) – Anne Briggs, 1963 Edinburgh Folk Festival Vol. 1
“Banjo Player of Aleph One” – Gwenifer Raymond 2025 Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
“Wheely Down” (R. Thompson) – Ivor Cutler, 1993 The World is a Wonderful Place
“Roundabout” – Ryley Walker, 2017 Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
“Brighter than the Blues” – Joan Shelly, 2016 Over and Even
“Three Ravens” (traditional) – Jake Xerxes Fussell, 2019 Out of Sight
“Lullaby” (from the film Wicker Man) – Magnet (Paul Giovanni) 1972
“Rivers Run Red” (Ella Oona Russell) – The New Eves, 2025 The New Eve is Rising
“Witches Reel” (traditional) – Starheid Gossip, 2015 Step Sisters
“Entertaining of a Shy Girl” – Donovan 1968 Hurdy Gurdy Man
“The Hedgehog Song”(Heron/Williamson) – Incredible String Band, 1966 The 5000 Spirits or Layers of an Onion
“Lay it Down” (G. Thomas) – Bonny Prince Billy with The Trembling Bells, 2014 New Trip On Old Wine
“Conch Shell” Katell Keineg, 1994 O Seasons O Castle
“Into My Arms” – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, 1997 Boatman’s Call
“Place to Be” – Nick Drake, Pink Moon
“How Wild the Wind Blows” – Molly Lee, 2018 The Tides Magnificence
“The Sweetest Decline” – Beth Orton Central Reservation
“The Wagoner’s Lad” (Traditional) – Bert Jansch, 1966 Jack Orion
“Nottamun Town” (traditional)- Fairport Convention, 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays
“Masters of War” – Bob Dylan, 1963 The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
“Needle of Death” – Bert Jansch, 1965 Bert Jansch
“Golden Brown” – The Stranglers 1982
“Meet On the Ledge” (R.Thompson) – Fairport Convention, 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays
“Anji” – Davy Graham
“Green Are Your Eyes” (b.Jansch) – Marianne Faithul, 1966 North Country Maid
“The Water” – Johnny Flynn & Laura Marling, 2010 Been Listening
“The Parting Glass” (traditional) – James Elkington 2017 Wintres Woma
“Katie Cruel” (traditional) – Agnes Obel
“Blues Run the Game” – Jackson C. Frank, 1965 Jackson C. Frank
“Home Sweet Home” (Bishop /Payne)- The King’s Singers 1993 Folk Songs of the British Isles
“A Heart Needs a Home” – Linda & Richard Thompson, 1975 Hokey Pokey
“Goodnight World” – Lisa O’Neil, 2023 All This Is Chance

The Socialism of James Joyce

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James Joyce

Joyce’s flirtation with organized socialist politics was brief, but he continued to find inspiration in socialist texts throughout his life.

By Donal Fallon | Jacobin 01.13.2021

Ulysses is a book in which everything happens and nothing happens. The story of a day in the life of a city — the Hibernian metropolis, as James Joyce saw Dublin — is a journey in a rambling flow of consciousness, where the very serious political issues of the day (the book is set on June 16, 1904) wrestle for space with the mundanities and excitement of the lives of his characters. Speaking of his appreciation for the book, Jeremy Corbyn noted how “Joyce references and richly describes what’s happening in the street. So somebody is holding forth about a big political issue and then the refuse cart goes by.” Edna O’Brien, one of Joyce’s finest biographers, has rightly maintained that “no other writer so effulgently and so ravenously recreated a city.”

Joyce is now eighty years dead, and yet his reputation as a writer whose work is difficult, even daunting to approach, remains. Anthony Burgess would insist that “If ever there was a writer for the people, Joyce was that writer,” yet others saw only pretension and inaccessibility in Joyce’s work, not least Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

Today, Joyce is not thought of in his native city — or more broadly — as a “political writer,” in the manner that later writers like Brendan Behan or even nearer contemporaries like Seán O’Casey. Joyce’s enduring place in Dublin’s collective memory is that of a champion of the city, with the words “when I die Dublin will be written on my heart” sold in whichever form (fridge magnet, risograph print, or coffee mug) a visitor should choose to bring them home. Yet Joyce was a writer fundamentally shaped by politics — personal, national, and international — one whose work was much influenced by the political climate in which it was written and by the developing political ideas of its writer.

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Dai Bando’s Music Room: Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder?

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By Dai Bando

“It’s an Irish trick that’s true

I can lick the mick that threw

The overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s chowder”

I dislike most of what I call “green beer” St. Paddy’s Day music, but this one is an exception. My dad used to sing “Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder” on St. Paddy’s Day and also whenever my mom made her awesome white clam chowder. Coincidentally, the lady who lived across the street was named Mrs. Murphy and my dad had convinced me that the song was written about our neighbor. Why not?

Now, Mrs. Murphy was lovely, but her husband was a different cat altogether. I myself would have gladly thrown my overalls in that old geezer’s chowder. Never did I get even a ‘hello’ from Mr. Murphy, even when hand-delivering his Sunday newspaper.

The Murphy’s only child Margaret was a rare thing, “fine as a beeswing” as Richard Thompson would say. Even in grade school, she was ethereal and somewhat precocious. I remember once Margaret informed me that female kangaroos “have bosoms.” I think I was in 3rd grade and didn’t have the slightest clue what the fuck she was talking about. (I did know what a kangaroo was.)

Margaret died far too young, bless her soul.

Mr. Desautel lived across the street from the Murphys, and that old bastard was so mean, he made Mr. Murphy look like Fred Rodgers. Mr. Desautel once challenged the Ice Cream Man to a fistfight because a few popsicle wrappers had blown onto his lawn. (I did witness Dougie Neederlitz brazenly toss his popsicle wrapper, though I didn’t rat him out.) Mr. Scotti, our ice cream truck driver, would’ve volunteered to throw Mr. Desautel’s overalls into the chowder with Mr. Desautel still wearing them.

“Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder” was written by George L. Geifer way back in 1898. Bing Crosby had a hit with it in 1945. I prefer the Maxwell Sisters performing the song in this short film (above) from the late 1940s.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all !